In the end, they had made camp halfway between Finstown and Kirkwall, a good ways after they left the main road that followed a large arc along the northern coast. As quick as one could travel along it, the detour on the way to the city wasn't worth it, especially since their goal lay to the south of the island's former largest settlement.
Solstice was back to sulking in silence and even kept it up throughout the morning. The difference this time was that she did not feel like doing anything about it. Or rather, she felt he deserved it. That, in turn, made her feel stupid. If there was anything she could not abide, it was feeling stupid.
The overcast sky seemed eager to match her mood as the cloud cover kept increasing in thickness along with the increasing daylight, thus maintaining a near constant level of greyness since daybreak.
The rejection had hurt, and hurt a lot, especially because of how unexpected it was. Why had he returned spéis to her when she had offered it if he had not believed her to be sincere? And why had she done it in the first place? Because it had felt right somehow, there in the sunshine after fooling around in that pond. Because she had somehow felt incredibly at ease, more than she had felt for years.
She kicked a grey stone down the grey road, hitting a rusty car that sat in front of a ruined, grey house with a dull clunk. A rabbit darted out from under it and disappeared into the greyish green prickly gorse that was taking over the grey building and the adjoining grey stretch of road.
On the other hoof, had he really rejected her? Did he know what he had implied? And did he even know what he had said yes to? Well, he should have known. She had never met anyone who did not know that one.
She glared at some brambles that had snaked some thorny branches out over a low drystone wall and into her way. The annoying vegetation was unimpressed and made her step around it anyway.
There was a flaw in her thoughts, she knew, a rather glaring one at that. She had very rarely met anyone who was not... was not... she mentally scowled at the offending word... tribal. That was one of Moorland's words. At least that pony had used it openly to describe her. At first. Did Solstice think it? Probably not. Of one of the tribes. Better.
There had been those two that had taught her the Stromness language. They had joined South Ronaldsay after a while though. So they would have known then. Maybe. She should have sought the one of them still alive out again a long time ago and ask about Stromness customs. Come to think of it, Dawn had not even known the most basic of declarations. Friendship.
But Dawn would know this one. The pony she had met three days ago and who had no real experience with the more intimate customs of... one of the tribes. Who had introduced her to her travelling companion yesterday afternoon. Who was a dufus. An extremely lovable one, but still. Who would not know since he barely even knew her language. Which she had offered to teach him because she already cared enough for him to go against what she knew was her uncle's will. So he would not look stupid back home. Which was stupid. Immensely stupid. Why?!
She stopped abruptly and stomped her hoof in frustration, which caused Solstice to bump into her hindquarters because he only looked at the ground. He gave a mumbled “Sorry,” and backed up a bit. She sighed deeply.
She hesitatingly turned around, took a deep breath and told him in a strained voice “I want... to apologize. I am...,” she ground her teeth, “Stupid.”
He looked up at that. “No. No you aren't. My mouth is always faster than my head. 'Specially with mares. Sorry.”
“Stop it! It is... my fault. I was...,” she fumbled for words. She then forced out “Do you know... this?” and lifted her forehoof, angling her fetlock so that her hoof pointed back at herself and offering it to him.
“Uh... friends?” he ventured carefully.
She lowered her head a little. “Spéis.”
He gave her an utterly uncomprehending look.
She looked away. “Means... 'Like'. Uh... a lot.”
His lips formed a silent 'oh'.
She gave him a careful sideways glance and quickly turned away, squeaking “Sorry! Just forget!” before beginning to trot away. She hated herself and the indignity of it all. And the sound of her voice. And her stupidity. She had only met Sol yesterday! And made the offer of affection two hours later. Two hours. Not even at least waited the customary two days after first meeting as was proper. What was she thinking?!
She was thinking that she might not have the opportunity in two days if she had to stay on Ronaldsay for the foreseeable future. Well, she was thinking that now. She certainly had not yesterday. It was infuriating.
“Wait!” she heard him call out and canter after her. She increased her pace. This was ridiculous. She would never live this down. “Buidhe! Stop!” No way. “Stop dammit! BUIDHE! Stop being STUPID!” That did it. She almost lost her balance as she skidded to a halt.
“I'm sorry! I had no idea, I mean, had I... uh... Sorry! I'd... I'd...” She winced while staring straight ahead. “I'd... I... ah dammit! Idiot! Stupid idiot! I'd... Ah... I'ddoneitanyway!” She felt her ears turn backwards towards him on their own volition, as far as they would go.
She heard him cough. She was pretty sure the next sound was him shifting his weight from one foreleg to the other and then scratching his mane with a hoof. Another strained cough.
Then, very carefully, “Can... can we try this again?”
She took a deep breath and slowly turned around and saw him mirroring her gesture as he offered a hoof to her with a sheepish and hopeful and wavering smile. “Mare offers first!” she blurted out and saw his smile fall to pieces.
“But... I didn't know! I just ruined it again? Oh come on! Nobody can be that stupid!” He looked close to tears now.
Curse traditions! “Wait! Tribal!” She almost jumped over to him and snatched his hoof with her fetlock, just before he could put it fully down again. They both froze.
“Eh... heh?”
When they drew close to the large city that sat on the coast to the east, they left the road and turned towards the small bay to the south that they would pass on the way to her tribe's territory. The city resembled a shallow mound with the houses on its outskirts having crumbled long since. Closer to the centre the old buildings made of sturdy masonry still stood, as of yet defying the slow decay that was patiently erasing the former dwellings of those who came before. A spire jutted from the middle. It belonged to a huge building surrounded by a field of engravings-covered, minuscule standing stones that listed in every direction. She'd visited it only once but quickly left.
Solstice cocked his head, looked up to her and smiled. “Hey, it'd be much faster if we simply follow the road. Didn't you want to make good time? My hooves aren't as sore as you'd like yet!”
She snorted and took a step to the right, bumping into him and nearly throwing the smaller pony off balance. “I do not like it. Not enough view.” She frowned. “And dogs,” she added as an afterthought.
“Mmh... good point I guess.”
The remaining packs of dogs had taken up residence in the inhospitable city when they gave up hunting members of her herd. The city provided shelter and was full of small prey anyway, which she suspected made for a much more comfortable existence.
“Better for soft hooves,” she smirked and got an indignant snort as reply. She turned her head away and gave a little sigh of relief. In truth, she was not overly afraid of the dogs since a fit horse was much too much hassle to hunt. She just... hated the enclosed space. The feeling of desolation. Of some indescribable dread. It made her afraid. And she really, really did not want to look weak right then.
Solstice trotted past her with a spring to his step. “Hey, good thing Stromness only has Moor's cats! And nice houses, intact roofs and all. My work by the way, those! Well, some of it. Uhm. And currently also fresh carrots. You'll love it!”
She swallowed lightly. “I... I guess.” she said in a slightly nervous voice and gave the grey city an uneasy glance. The unobstructed view and free flowing wind that ruffled her coat and played with her mane suddenly felt wonderful. It also casually reminded her that, like it or not, there were some of her actions today she had not quite thought through. She looked at the smaller stallion who was all but prancing along and was actually leading the way instead of her.
He certainly was a unique sight, starting with the silvery green splotch that coloured his right ear and a third of his face around one large golden eye and the white star on his forehead. It continued down his neck until his chest where his coat abruptly turned white, then just as suddenly a warm brown down to one white and one green fetlock. The left side of his face and most of his body was also brown, interspersed with green and white areas of different shapes and sizes before ending in a completely green flank and hindleg.
Could she not be excused for not thinking straight? Who could think straight, presented with something like this? She chuckled.
Solstice playfully jumped first left, then right and then leapt over a ditch in one beautiful, fluid motion that ended abruptly with one of his forehooves sinking into the soft ground on the other side upon landing. She was pretty sure his brother would have flared his wings to stay upright. Solstice on the other hoof did an awkward sideways double hop much like a startled puffin on an unexpectedly slick rock.
He narrowly avoided a faceful of rush and laughed before looking back with a grin and some small spots of dirt on his face. His shaggy grey and white mane flopped back into place, meaning all over his neck and into his eyes.
“That was planned!” he called.
She shook her head with a warm smile. “Sure. Dancer.”
She caught up to him and gave his shoulder a soft nudge with her forehead before falling in step beside him, which actually meant she had to slow her gait if she did not want to make him trot briskly on the uneven terrain while she herself was only walking quickly. At least she had realized that by now and cut him some slack, which did not mean he would not have to learn to keep up. She grinned to herself. In the not too distant future he would be Stromness' fastest and most surehooved pony.
If she had her way, that was. She bit her lower lip. “Solstice? How much Whinny do you speak?”
“Uhm...,” was his reply. She was just about to repeat the question when he said, “Not much, really. I understand a fair bit from the northerners. When they speak slowly. And, yeah, we can have something resembling a conversation. Ronaldsay...” He winced. “Well, we tried that already, didn't we?”
She nodded with a sigh. “We did. I must teach you soon.”
“Why the rush?”
She gave him a long look.
“Oh... right. That. This is going to be all kinds of difficult... didn't think that one through, did I? Uh, no offence! Sorry!”
She gave him an even longer look that made him squirm which in turn made him walk in a rather awkward way. “I agree.” She had to chuckle at his expression of near endless relief. “I made the same mistake,” she stated matter of factly before continuing in slow and simple Whinny, “[Dawn's brother learns our language quickly? I will be asked why. And how.]”
“You... need permission to teach me? What if I pretend not to understand anything even then?” He frowned. “Kinda counterproductive. Uh... [I mean], what is it... [I want-] dammit!” He broke off when the gesture he was trying to use caused him to almost trip over his own hooves.
“What did you want to say?”
“[I wanted...,]” he said, sighed, and changed language. “I wanted to say that I want to be able to speak to your folk down there.”
She smirked. “Well, you did not.”
“Thought as much,” he muttered. “Ow. That actually hurt,” he complained, shaking his left hoof a little. “Don't walk and talk.”
“[You did not really talk.]”
He snorted. “Thanks for reminding me. How do you people do it?”
“[We just do.]”
“Hmph. Thanks for being so helpful!”
“[You are welcome,]” she teased with a chuckle before, just then, his right forehoof somehow happened to be in the way of her left foreleg for a second, sending her face first into the meadow.
“Whoops! Careful with that pronunciation!” he exclaimed and galloped away, pieces of dirt and grass flying up behind him.
As it turned out, he was not as slow as she thought, not by a long shot. It almost took her a whole mile to catch him, on the incline up towards the ridge on which ran the main southward road. The smaller and lighter pony had an advantage on soft and uneven ground when he was actually concentrating on where he was going and getting the jumps over clogged ditches, stone walls and remnants of fencing right. On firm ground on a hillside he was no match for her though. But then, few were.
She was in no mood for retaliation though and thus they just ended up at the summit together, sweating, panting and laughing, leaning against each other. When they had both caught their breath, they set off again along the road that wound its way up from the city behind them and stretched towards the southern horizon and their goal in a long, straight line.
In the distance to the west, across the sheltered bay that demarcated the northern limits to where her tribe usually roamed, there sat the ruins of a group of large buildings. The remnants of the partially collapsed seaward wall was adorned with two large and weathered markings, obviously once part of something bigger.
SC___
They paid it no heed.
A little short of two hours later they had reached the first of the four similar structures connecting the southern islands to the mainland.
“Be careful. Some cracks are deep,” she advised him when he gingerly took the first steps onto the dam.
A massive causeway of grey stone blocks spanned the three hundred yards width of the strait, hardly any signs of erosion on the rectangular surfaces. The road on top was another matter though, having been exposed to weather and saltwater for so long. It was treacherous ground full of cracks and pieces of road that might not hold the weight of a horse or pony, above holes through which came the faint gurgling sound of ebbing and flowing seawater.
Halfway across he stopped and pointed to the corroded wreck of a large ship, just visible a little distance to the east, under the surface of the shallow and clear water. “Should've thought you wouldn't run a ship aground on a wall like this... specially if you built it yourself? Wonder what they were up to here.”
She shrugged. “I do not know.”
“Mmm... sure, 'course you wouldn't,” he said dismissively and without registering the annoyed look she gave him. “I'll ask Dawn. He knows that kind of stuff... or at least he knows where to look. Hey, bet Moor's going to love to have a look at this...,” he continued before looking up again and cocked his head at her expression. “Uh... what?”
“Nothing,” she said over her shoulder as she continued on toward the little islet and along the road that took them over another two similar dams. When they reached land that did not feel like a stepping stone again she stopped and waited for him to catch up. She sighed.
After clearing her throat, she intoned in a formal tone, “[Welcome to our lands, Solstice Spirit of Stromness, brother of Chieftain Dawn Horizon.]”. She smiled a little smile on seeing his bewildered expression. “It is what we say, so I must say it. Do not worry.”
He swallowed, cleared his throat and said in a nervous voice, “I... I just realized something. I have... no idea how I should act?!” He sat down heavily. “I'll have a hard enough time even pronouncing your uncle's name right! Falea... no... Faoilieagh. Right. Right?" his voice increasingly higher pitched.
Her smile fell and was replaced by a worried expression before she shook her head a little and cantered over to him. “Shhh...,” she softly whispered while giving him a little nuzzle. “I had not thought about this. I am Sorry. I will show you. Come.” Pointing south with her head after another nuzzle, she assured him that he got the name right, almost perfectly at that. Not exactly the truth, but he looked very much as if he needed the reassurance right then.
After only a little while she fell back into her steady gait, the one that Solstice needed to trot fairly quickly to keep up with. Since she had gotten the impression that it for some reason made him feel better, maybe because he had something else to concentrate on than his own thoughts, she thought it could be helpful.
“When we arrive, you walk at my side. Not close. A half length away. Not closer, that means family. Or, for you, tribe.” She half expected him to ask a silly question or to be looking at the landscape, yet when she turned her head she found him staring at her, ears at attention, his expression a mix of worry and determination. She nodded.
“If you cannot, a length behind me. Not closer. Not!” she asserted and gave him a long look.
“Ah...,” came the hesitant reply a moment later. “I guess... I guess I know what that would mean.”
With a nod she continued, “Not two lengths: no respect. Do not flank me like Dawn: lower rank. Side by side.” She heard him give an apprehensive sigh. “I will help keep the right distance.”
“Uh... side by side because you're his niece and I'm Dawn's brother?”
“Yes, and because I am his scout. Old rank. But same... very easy,” she stated, to which he gave an unhappy snort.
“Buidhe? Just... just please walk slower when we get there, yes? I'm... uhm... smaller than you lot...” He looked the two hooves up to her and added, slightly awkward, “And we don't need to draw extra attention towards that? Please?”
When they crested the last hill of the island before the dam that led onto South Ronaldsay the weather had turned from a merely depressing grey to an unpleasant depressing grey. Low hanging clouds were drifting in from the southwest in a second layer under the overcast sky. They brought with them a steady, cold and almost horizontal drizzle.
With an eyeroll, she had accepted Solstice grumpily moving around her and in close on her left side. Or probably leeward side from his point of view. Since his ears where in a convenient height where she neither needed to reach up or lower her head, she took advantage of his position, leaned over a little and softly bit down on the right one. He gave a little yelp and looked up indignantly. She smiled warmly at him and enjoyed seeing his sour expression melt away into something slightly dreamy before he leaned in himself and nudged her on the neck. She chuckled quietly and moved a little closer to better shield the stallion from the weather. He was clearly used to shelter in warm houses - and a little too soft, she decided. She would change that. She smirked to herself.
Half a mile later they reached the last barrier that spanned the length of what they called the Black Bay. A wide beach had formed to the east of the dam, yet there was no white sand down at the waterline. Instead there was a mass of viscous, brownish black sludge, most of it partially hardened and almost a yard high in some places where rocks protruded from the ground and provided more surface area for the sticky mass to cling to. The whole visible shoreline further out looked the same.
“Do not step on the black pieces. Very hard to get off hooves,” she advised, pointing to some strewn about black lumps of varying sizes that storms had thrown further up the dam and onto the road.
“What...?” Solstice carefully inspected one of the things lying in a little puddle, which glistened with a rainbow sheen, and wrinkled his muzzle in disgust. “Yuck! That smells nasty! What is this stuff?”
“I do not know. It is on much of our east coast. We just stay away.”
“Hmm... more for Dawn I guess,” he stated and, after a little pause, added, “Heh... I'd never want his job. Too many stupid questions that everybody wants their answers to right there and then.” He grinned and leaned into her side with a content sigh and looked out along the dam. A few moments later he drew a sharp breath and slumped. “And we have company.”
She took her gaze off of him and looked in the direction he was pointing. On the far side of the causeway and a little up a grassy hill there stood two horses, their forms outlined against the sky. With a weary sigh she brought a body length between herself and her companion.
“[I just made sure you had not injured yourself when you... slipped. It is not serious. You will not limp for longer than a mile, I think.]”
“Oh come on!”